Education needs to foster talent, nurture potential

Editor's note: The State Council, China's Cabinet, approved the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) for the development of education on Thursday. Chengdu.cn spoke to Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the China National Academy of Educational Sciences, on the educational challenges and opportunities China faces. Below are excerpts of the interview. The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.

In recent years, there has been a decline in the number of age-eligible children enrolling in kindergartens. This trend is likely to show up in primary, secondary and high schools and even universities in the years ahead.

At the same time, school-age children from rural areas are increasingly moving to towns and cities, a shift that is expected to become even more pronounced.

These developments reflect the changing demographics of the school-age population and underscore the need for a strategic reallocation of educational resources. The central government has responded with an education development plan that stresses better coordination and distribution of resources.

The uneven distribution of educational resources is a major challenge. High-quality resources in a region are usually concentrated in a few prestigious urban schools. In the hope that their children receive a better education, many parents choose top schools even if they are located far away.

As a result, there is overcrowding in some highly sought-after schools while other institutions struggle to fill their enrollment quotas. With the ongoing demographic changes among the school-age population, this imbalance could become even more pronounced in the coming years.

Overcrowded schools put pressure on teachers, making it difficult for them to address the needs of individual students, while under-enrolled schools risk underutilizing their resources. From this perspective, the allocation of educational resources needs to be more balanced among schools, between urban and rural areas, and between general and vocational education.

The plan also calls for greater stress on quality education to promote the healthy growth and all-round development of students.

Till now, parents and teachers have focused primarily on academic scores when evaluating students. But character, practical skills and creativity are equally important in assessing a student's value.

With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, the most valuable future skill will not be the ability to provide repeatable answers, but the capacity to be original and distinctively creative. This requires a shift from traditional educational concepts toward approaches that nurture each child's creative potential during the critical stages of development.

The plan also stresses the importance of supporting students' healthy growth. Health should also encompass mental well-being, social adaptability and moral development.

The incidence of childhood obesity and myopia has risen in recent years, while mental health problems among students have become increasingly common.

Therefore, fostering students' natural talents and individual potential should become the central goal of education.

Schools should help students discover their interests and establish evaluation systems that recognize diverse achievements. By allowing students to pursue what genuinely inspires them, education can encourage them to explore, innovate and create.